Hiking Turtle Rock Trail
For a birthday treat, I hiked the Turtle Rock Trail with my camera and my oldest son. This is a 3 mile loop around Turtle Rock, an enormous granite outcropping in the Vedauwoo area of the Medicine Bow National Forest, just a few miles east of Laramie. Turtle Rock itself is very popular with rock climbers, but the trail is a simple hike. Unfortunately, battery problems and a looming thunderstorm kept me from taking a many photos as I would have liked, but did get a few shots.
As we started down the trail, these rocks towered up ahead of us.
A short distance along was the first in a series of beaver ponds.
A closer look at the beaver pond. Unfortunately, you can see a lot of rusty red beetle-killed evergreen trees in the background. The pine bark beetle has taken a huge toll on the forests here in the last few years. The pond itself was a wonder – full of huge tadpoles and waterbugs. Blue dragonflies hovered over it everywhere. Lee saw one of the resident beavers just as it ducked under the water. There were several more ponds like this one strung along the first part of the trail, ringed with scrub willows and water grasses.
The area near the beaver ponds was lush and green with aspen groves and wildflowers. In fact, there were wildflowers everywhere and I could have taken a hundred photos just of those.
As we went around the base of Turtle Rock and away from the beaver ponds, there were fewer aspen and more of the huge granite boulders the area is known for.
A huge rocky outcropping, with more of the beetle-killed trees in the foreground.
The sky was still blue here; this was before the thunderstorm started rolling in.
One of nature’s rock sculptures on the far side of the trail, where everything is dryer. You can see the grey-green color of the sagebrush in the foreground. There are not nearly so many aspen here – it is mostly fir and pine trees along with the sagebrush.
Moss, lichen and tree-covered boulder
A brave aspen growing between several boulders. You can see that the sky is starting to cloud up a little bit here.
This sheet of smooth granite was typical on the far side of Turtle Rock. As you can see, the thunderstorm was definitely lurking by now, and the rumbles had me moving more quickly than I liked. It definitely put a crimp in my photography.
As we came back around to the side where we started, this tiny stream was trickling along.
The scenery grew lush and green again. Shortly after this, we made it back to the parking lot. We managed to beat the thunderstorm – it started raining on the way home. What a wonderful way to spend my birthday afternoon.
-Jane (c) 2010
The Wandering Path 
